Anti-Keystone activists set to be left behind again

Keystone has acquired a symbolic power that’s lacking from more abstract debates. | AP Photo

“It’s proven an effective organizing tool for their activist base, but ultimately it may hurt the environmentalists’ standing in the public at large who are overwhelmingly in favor of the pipeline,” said Paul Bledsoe, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund and a former Clinton White House aide.

Text Size

-

+

reset

“The most impressive story around Keystone is the fact that it hasn’t been approved yet,” said Navin Nayak, senior vice president for campaigns at the League of Conservation Voters, which waged a successful effort to back environmentally supportive candidates in the 2012 election cycle. “And the reason it hasn’t been approved is because we’ve seen grass-roots energy and grass-roots activism around an environmental issue that we’ve haven’t seen I’d say in several decades.”

That passion should continue to invigorate the movement even if Obama disappoints the activists on Keystone, said NRDC President Frances Beinecke.

“They’re demanding climate action, and if the president approves the Keystone pipeline those voices are going to get stronger, tougher, angrier,” Beinecke said. “All that will do is light even more fire under these people.”

On the other hand, some supporters of climate action worry that Obama would just alienate many of the same activists who could otherwise rally to his cause. The administration needs to give some thought to how to reach out to them, said Manik Roy, vice president for strategic outreach at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

“Once the Keystone XL fight is over, if it’s lost, they need to give people a reason to stay engaged and not think the next fight is also going to be a loser,” Roy said.

Even Steyer — who said he sees no reason to concede defeat on the pipeline — is willing to look beyond Keystone in planning the future of his super PAC, which he says will target federal, state and local races in the 2014 cycle.

“Is the pipeline important? Very important,” Steyer said. “Is it the be-all and the end-all? Doesn’t seem like it to me, does it to you?”